Friday 12th – Saturday 13th July 2019

TRUE COUNTRY MUSIC AND DIXIE CULTURE

THE LOW DOWN

Dixie Fields is a new boutique country music festival debuting in 2019, featuring Lauren Alaina, Holloway Road, a cinema under the stars, camping, BBQ, and a host of other great country music.

On the Friday evening we’ll kick off with a true country film, played on our outdoor cinema followed by an intimate camp-side country acoustic set. Saturday sees our full line up, headlined by Lauren Alaina. And on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, we’ll treat all our campers to an American style brunch.

Dixie Fields is taking place in grassland fields previously used by the V Festival, bordering beautiful Hylands Park, just outside Chelmsford, Essex.

Our festival will be a laidback affair, fully sustainable, ethically sourced and packed with clean and wholesome good times.

To help you choose your tickets, we’ve given a little outline of the options here:

Day Tickets include:Admission to Dixie Fields for a full day of music and fun on Saturday 13th July. A celebration of all things country; music, food, drink and shopping as well as a fairground and other attractions.

Camping Tickets include:Two nights of camping, admission to Dixie Fields on Friday evening for open air cinema, campfire socials, country karaoke & more. American pancake brunch on Saturday morning followed by a full day of more music, fun and frolics for the main festival day. Start your Sunday with another American style breakfast alongside a little more music to perk you up for the journey home!

We can’t wait to see so many country music fans all in one place and want to make Dixie Fields as interactive as possible, so bring your guitars, get involved with the “Country-oke”, wear your hats and generally have a dang good time!

THE LINE UP

Our vision for Dixie Fields is to combine well-known and popular country artists from US with local UK talent to give our festival goers a taste of the fastest growing musical genre there is.

Gary Quinn

Hannah Paris

Stevie O'Connor

The Jackson Line

TIMINGS

Timings for the weekend:

Saturday 13th July11am: Festival gates open12 noon: Live music starts11pm: Live music finishes

Sunday 14th JulyFrom 9am: Brunch is served12 noon: Campsite closes

THE LOCATION

Only 40 miles from Cental London, rural Essex is the perfect spot for a country music festival.

Situated in prime grassland in-between Hylands Park and Chelmsford, the 27 hectare site is owned by the Thorogood family and was licenced and used throughout the month of August for many years by the V-festival (capacity circa 100,000 at it’s peak).

Dixie Fields is close to the M11 and M25 less than an hour from Stansted and London City Airports, and less than two hours from Heathrow and Gatwick.

Lauren Alaina

Georgia native Lauren Alaina captured America’s hearts when she competed on Season 10 of American Idol. In 2017, Lauren followed up her No. 1 debuting first album, Wildflower, with the release of the critically-acclaimed Road Less Traveled. The album landed on multiple end-of-year “Best Of” lists including Billboard, Rolling Stone and Amazon, and it became the top-streamed female country album release of the year. Praised as “full of life lessons and uplift” (PEOPLE), the collection of 12 songs all written by the young star includes Lauren’s first No. 1 hit, title track “Road Less Traveled."

The “sassy Southerner with killer pipes” (PARADE) has shared the stage with superstars including Alan Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Martina McBride. Lauren recently joined Cole Swindell on the Reason to Drink Tour and Jason Aldean for this summer’s High Noon Neon Tour.

Lauren is this year’s ACM New Female Vocalist of the Year and performed live from Las Vegas. She was also nominated for ACM Vocal Event of the Year for “What Ifs,” the double-platinum-selling No. 1 collaboration with Kane Brown. Lauren is one of CMT’s Next Women of Country and she received her first CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Video of the Year with her No. 1 smash “Road Less Traveled,” This year she received her second CMT Music Award for Collaborative Video of the Year, with Kane Brown. In addition to performing on the 51st Annual CMA Awards, 2017 saw Lauren earning nominations for CMA New Artist of the Year, several Teen Choice Awards and Radio Disney Music Awards.

HOLLOWAY ROAD

Local stars Jack Cooper & Rob Gulston from Southend are one of the most exciting new duos in country-pop music with over half a million streams for their music to date. With growing support from fans worldwide and three iTunes Top Five EPs to date, success in a growing international country scene increasingly looks like an inevitable part of the Holloway Road story. Late in 2017 the duo completed their first full band headline tour and during the summer of 2018 they returned to Nashville to write for their third EP ‘Broke’, with a huge response from fans and over 100k streams within the first few weeks of release.

THE JACKSON LINE

Another local success story from their hometown, Chelmsford, The Jackson Line story started almost 20 years when lead vocalists Keith Porter and Jamie Cook met whilst performing at a holiday resort. A passion for song-writing and country music brought the pair back together in 2014 and The Jackson Line was officially formed. With a range of different influences throughout their music, the band celebrated the 2018 release of their debut EP, Don’t Wait, which has since amassed over 30,000 streams across multiple platforms.

MEGAN O’NEILL

Hailed as The Irish Carrie Underwood, chart-topping and multi-award winning Irish-born singer/songwriter Megan O’Neill is one of the most exciting Americana artists on the UK - Irish scene. Having shared stages with some of the most prestigious names in Country music such as Miranda Lambert, Kip Moore & Donna Taggart to name a few, Megan is a rising star, illuminated further with the release of her chart-topping album “Ghost of You” in 2018 which gathered more than 100,000 views in less than a month.

Royal South

Royal South….some Southern twang, a British accent and an undeniably brilliant three-part harmony. With chart topping songs, Grand Ole Opry performances and industry awards as individual artists, the formation of Royal South by SaraBeth, Glen Mitchell and Vickie Vaughn is the perfect storm for the creation of a Nashville powerhouse. Glen Mitchell has played guitar for country stars such as Darius Rucker, Lonestar and Billy Currington and originally hails from Rayleigh, Essex, meaning Royal South is not only a great addition of talent to the Dixie Fields line-up but is an absolutely perfect fit! Brand new single “Cry, Cry” is out now.

Gary Quinn

A 5 time British Country Music Association Awards winner including 'Male Vocalist of the Year 2016 & 2017' and previously 'UK Songwriter of the Year' and consecutive 'Song of the Year' honours, Northern Irishman Gary Quinn has become one of British country music’s more established performers.

Having garnered international praise and an array of awards for his eponymous debut self-titled album, Gary teased the release of his new body of work with the single ‘Shame’ that was premiered by The Boot.com earlier this year and went on to debut at no.7 in the UK iTunes country chart. 'Shame' set the tone for the multi-award winner’s most personally insightful release entitled ‘I Remember’ which debuted at no.5 in the UK iTunes country chart. Quinn’s work stills sees regular radio airplay on the BBC and many of the top country stations in the UK and around the world including Chris Country, Downtown Radio, Nixa Country and 2Country Radio.

Quinn and his band have performed at one of Europe’s most prestigious country festivals ‘Country2Country’ in London on numerous occasions, The Long Road Festival and Manchester’s ‘Buckle & Boots’ as well as festivals the length and breadth of the UK and Europe. Gary recently toured the Gold Coast of Australia culminating in a performance on the Toyota Stage at the Tamworth Country Music Festival.

Hannah Paris

Local resident Hannah Paris is a talented singer/songwriter with a sound that fuses many elements of Pop and Rock with heavy influences of Country Music.

Hannah hit the headlines when her début EP ‘Short Stories’ climbed the iTunes UK Country Chart reaching the top 10 in July 2017. Since then the EP has amassed over 150,000 streams on Spotify, making Hannah one of the most successful unsigned artists on the UK country scene.

Hannah and the band have graced many stages during the last 12 months, playing for audiences at iconic venues including The Green Note, Notting Hill Arts Club and the Hard Rock Café and over a dozen outdoor festivals.

Hannah has also been busy in the studio too, releasing 4 singles, “Just You Wait”, “L.A.”, "Halfway Home" and Her latest single "Never Bring Me Down" which was released in January 2019. All the 4 singles charted well in the UK iTunes Charts and she is back in the studio writing new songs.

Hannah was nominated by the BCMA (British Country Music Association) for 2 awards; Best song of 2018 (L.A.) and Best video of 2018 (Just You Wait) which capped an impressive year.

Jackson Michelson

Over the past year Michelson has played more than 150 shows, opened for Blake Shelton, Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band and visited radio stations in over 120 cities across the country.

Raised in Corvallis, Oregon, Jackson Michelson kicked off his country career on the West Coast, carving out a sound that blended the rootsy twang of the American South with the sunny, feel-good spirit of the Pacific Coast. By the time he moved to Nashville, he'd already spent years on the road, playing in bands back at home.

It was then that he started writing. It was music shaped by what he listened to and where he came from. But most of the grunt work was done on the road, where connecting with new fans along the way was priority number one. To Michelson those fans were everything. They were his muse, his support system and his champions.

Now, with a record deal under his belt, Michelson is prepping for the next phase of his career. There are new shows to play, new songs to be written and new opportunities to explore. But he's still the boy from Corvallis, happy to sing — a life he's built himself, show by show, song by song — to an audience that continues to grow.

Remember Monday

Remember Monday are a country/pop trio made up of Holly-Anne Hull, Lauren Byrne, and Charlotte Steele.

They first met at college at age 17, and bonded over their mutual love of John Mayer and harmonies. From there it was a short seven years before Remember Monday was born...

They were known for a number of years as 'Houston', and released their debut EP 'Manuscripts' in March 2018.

After wowing audiences at festivals across the UK this summer, they released their debut single 'Drive', which shot to number 1 in the iTunes Country Music Charts on its first day of release!

Most recently the band have been (and still are!) appearing in the 2019 season of The Voice and are being mentored by Jennifer Hudson.

Stevie O’Connor

Stevie O'Connor is the UK's very own Country artist. From Eric Church, Sturgill Simpson to Chris Stapleton, Stevie ignites that 3 chords and the truth.

Stevie is an emerging country artist based in the North West of the UK. His passion for music is undeniably driven from traditional country roots. Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard to name but a few of Stevie's idols, he aspires to be seen as."Country music is telling a story that people will hear, and know that place you were telling it from".

Stevie joins Gary in being the “Northern” contingent for the Dixie Fields line up and we can’t wait to help them enjoy their Essex gig debuts!

Megan McKenna

A member of reality TV royalty, TOWIE star Megan McKenna is now a country singer who knocked Taylor Swift and Pink off the top of the main iTunes chart with her debut singles ‘High Heeled Shoes’ and ‘Far Cry From Love’. These songs were debuted on her own ITVBe show ‘There’s Something About Megan’ which documented her time in Nashville where she was welcomed with open arms by the country music community - simply because of her truly world class voice which has stopped gig-goers in their tracks ever since.

Last year Megan released her debut album ‘Story Of Me’ which went to no.1 on the UK iTunes country chart. Megan wrote on the album with Amy Wadge (Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud) and Beth Nielsen Chapman (Faith Hill - This Kiss). When Megan filmed her own show in Nashville she performed at legendary venues such as The Bluebird and at Bobby’s Idle Hour.

Ward Thomas

English twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas made chart history when their second album, Cartwheels, became the first country record by a British act ever to top the U.K. album chart, beating the long-established Jamie T to the top spot. Born in 1994 and brought up on a farm in rural Hampshire, the girls attended a local convent school and were turned on to country music as teenagers when a friend played them the Dixie Chicks. Both talented singers and instrumentalists, they started writing together while in the sixth form, bringing a uniquely British perspective to the genre.

When one of their teachers, who had once been a backup singer in Nashville, forwarded their demos to some old contacts, the sisters were invited to record their debut album there. Released in 2014 and entitled From Where We Stand, it had a fairly traditional sound that showcased their beautiful close-harmony vocals. Relentlessly championed by easy listening tastemaker station BBC Radio 2, the album peaked at number 41 in the U.K. album chart, selling 25,000 copies. The sisters toured heavily in its support, steadily increasing their fan base by word of mouth.

In 2016 they signed to Sony for the release of their second album, Cartwheels. While parts of the album, particularly the gorgeous title track, stayed true to the traditionalist sound of their debut, it often strayed significantly from "pure" country; some tracks bore the stamp of Fleetwood Mac's country-rock-influenced Rumours, while others were just contemporary pop/rock. The girls' songwriting knack was undiminished, however, and the British public voted with their wallets, sending the album to number one and officially making Ward Thomas the most successful British country act ever. The duo's third album, Restless Minds, followed in 2019 and saw them move even farther away from traditional country toward the electro-pop-rock sound of artists like Taylor Swift.

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